Sylvie Paillard
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The reality of Western Forest Products' decision to shut down Squamish's largest employer is just about to truly hit home.
Next Friday (March 10), the last shift of Woodfibre pulp mill workers will get on the transport ferry, cross the Howe Sound and leave the site that has been home to a mill since 19192.
"It's hard to believe," said union president Doug Muir, who began working at the mill in 1971. "I even drive down the highway and I look over there and I don't see the steam and I think 'Good grief can it really be true?' But it is."
All 323 employees of Woodfibre were given registered letters nine days before Christmas announcing that they would all be laid off by March 10. Operational shutdown of Woodfibre began Jan. 23 and under the collective agreement, employees were to receive severance of two weeks for every 10 years on the job and one week for every year thereafter.
"I think the reality is really going to start now," said Muir. "They're heading toward pay periods with no money and then there's being finally out and not being asked to come back anymore."
Several workers have already taken other jobs, many of them taking offers from numerous industrial companies across the province who focused their recruiting in and around Squamish after the announcement.
"The reality is very stark right now," said Muir. "Some have moved on already and got other jobs and others are still looking and others are caught in between, they don't know what they'll be able to do."
It's not the first time Woodfibre employees have had to face hardship, according to Muir, and workers will get through this too, he said.
"In about 1974 or `75 they announced that the Woodfibre townsite was closing and the people had to move out within a certain period of time and they were all coming to Squamish, and that was pretty traumatic for those people," he said. "They survived, they got through it and I'm sure we will too. But it's still a pretty traumatic event."
Some workers are hoping to take advantage of possible retraining in other industries through provincial Communities in Transition funding for which the municipality must apply.
"We are continuing conversations with the ministry in Victoria and Capilano College and BCIT and others about the possibility about doing skills training in the Squamish area," said Mayor Ian Sutherland. "That's a process that takes some time, it's certainly worth exploring and finding out what the possibilities might be."
The provincial funding is dependent on the size of the community and what other industries exist, said local MLA Joan McIntyre. Fortunately, said McIntyre, new industries may be coming and "that's a testament to Squamish and its buoyancy."
There have been a number of inquiries made regarding the site, according to Sutherland, including an already highly publicized proposal for a wind turbine manufacturing plant. The district is so confident that the site will be acquired - bringing with it $2 million in municipal taxes - that a recent district five-year draft budget plan shows no discount of the newly lost tax revenue.
"We continue to be in conversations with Western Pulp and what's going on with that site and we've had people get into contact with us with interest in that site," he said. "I think Western Pulp would like to bring that to a conclusion as quickly as they possibly can, but that's probably in four or five months or six months"
